Conventional is a good fallback position isn’t it?

Hmmm this is something I will have to think about…conventional is tricky. It’s tricky because who created conventional? To me, conventional in human terms is conventional set by someone else or based on past events or experiences made. I don’t really like conventional to be honest. I do agree that in some cases it helps to be conventional as it may create some order or structure and in that case yes, it is a good fallback position. However, in most cases conventional is stupid.

People live their life based on what they believe is conventional. I see this happening around me everyday…even if they hate what they have to do and it makes them hopelessly unhappy, they do it because it’s ‘how things are supposed to be’.

To me, people who live a conventional life (no offence to anybody) don’t take time to question life or challenge ‘the norm’ and they don’t think further than what they should. In short, I believe that people who live a conventional life don’t live their life at all. I strongly believe that people shouldn’t live their life because that’s how they were told or taught to live their lives. You have a brain, a unique brain, a unique personality and your own character –use it and don’t be afraid to use it! Ask a lot of questions, create your own theories, don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid if your opinion differs from most people’s and don’t be scared to pick yourself up if you have failed. Just never, never live a conventional life because you think you have to…nothing ever has to be a certain way!    

My sore teeth

I’m sitting here at this moment in time with terrible tooth ache...it’s so sore!!!! I feel like screaming! Everything is so sensitive and I feel like I can’t even move my mouth. I really hate the dentist though…maybe that is why I have sore teeth in the first place.

Whenever I went to the dentist as a child they would always end up hurting me and then when I got older I made the choice to just stop going to the dentist because they were way too violent and I always left crying. All my experiences at the dentist have been bad. One time I went to the dentist (I was in matric already) and my dad went with me because I was scared because they were going to extract my tooth. I was sitting in the chair, my dad was holding my hand and the dentist was busy doing his thing. Then, next minute he starts pulling and tugging at my tooth and I start fighting with him because he is hurting me and I start crying and my dad is scolding me on the other side – it was a disaster! That is just one of the many bad experiences I have had.

 I guess that a few minutes of being ‘dentist-bullied’ is not as bad as the toothache experience? Maybe I should start going to the dentist again because I’m starting to realise that these are the only teeth I have left in my mouth and I don’t want to end up with false teeth….:/

Losing my smile

The thing I fear most in life is to lose my smile - It’s the most terrifying feeling ever! The moment I start to sense that this is happening I start to panic. Over the past two years I have seen myself get a little bit more serious about life and I’m starting to worry. It’s almost as if a part of my soul is slowly dying. I feel that if my mother were here I would never be afraid and I wouldn’t feel this way at all because she makes my soul smile all the time.

Now that she is not here it feels as though I’m surrounded by people who take life too seriously and as though I’m the only one laughing at life. I hate it, because I don’t constantly want to be the only one laughing. I think the fact that I’m constantly aware of this helps, because when I feel like my fire is taken out of me I just take myself out of the situation and spend some alone time. It’s not easy though.

My mother has told me that we are the only ones who create our own happiness and that we shouldn’t rely on others to make us happy. I agree with her, but I feel that without her here, a big part of my happiness fades. Does this mean that I am relying on her for my happiness? She is an angel though. I feel that wherever she is present there is light and joy. It’s hard to not be surrounded by that all the time. I fear that I am losing my smile and it makes me so unhappy and scared. I don’t know what I would do if this had to happen…

You cannot chase two rabbits at the same time.

Well technically you can chase two rabbits at the same time, but it won’t be easy. If you visualise this image in your mind it is quite funny. Chasing two rabbits at once only means two things to me. One meaning I interpret as chasing two people at the same time (in love) and that is always an epic fail as someone always gets hurt in the end. My second interpretation is that you are trying to do too many things at once, which could also be an epic fail because you can’t do too many things at once and you can’t satisfy everyone at once. So yes, maybe chasing two rabbits at once is not a very good idea…

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea.” (Alain)

Having one idea is never a good idea ha ha! It is always best to have a backup plan. If your one idea doesn’t work out, firstly you’d be screwed and secondly you would be really disappointed. I don’t think you’d be disappointed because your idea failed or didn’t work out, but you’ll be more disappointed because you didn’t have a backup plan.

There was no room for error and therefore you are really the only one disappointing yourself. In life you need to make error, in life we need to fail. If we don’t fail, we can’t grow and we can’t learn and we won’t ever need backup plans. Avoid disappointing yourself and have a backup plan, because life does not follow plans – it is not rigid. So relax and be flexible, don’t live by the book and don’t take things too seriously. In fact hardly ever take things seriously J

Have you figured out the second head fake?

I don’t really get what this means (how often do I start my blogs like this) but from what I have researched, it seems that it is about achieving your dreams and living your life with good values. By doing this, the rest will follow. Karma will play its role if you play yours by being a good person. This is a speech given by life coach Randy Pausch. 

I guess that if you have figured out the first head fake you wouldn’t have to worry about the second head fake? Randy then says in the speech that the speech was not for his students but for his three children. Now I’m really confused…I’m not too good with understanding quotes (I think), I want to know exactly what it is you are actually saying. Anyway, Randy obviously had valuable lessons to teach and that’s beautiful.

How hard is it to follow instructions?

I bet you that most people would say that following instructions is not hard at all. However, my opinion seems to differ very much! There have been many times when instructions are written down in black and white, people read it and they still don’t know what to do or what the instructions are actually telling them to do.

I see this so often in daily activities, for example, at university the lecturers give clear instructions on what the students should do and in some mysterious way the students still achieve the exact opposite of what has actually been asked of them. I think all of us have been guilty of this once or twice in our lives, some of us all the time haha!

I know I have a very short attention span and don’t listen properly, but I think the bigger problem here is that people cannot apply themselves. Many people can receive and understand instructions, but cannot actually apply their minds. I wish the world could apply themselves more and be less formal and theoretical. I wish people would stop living by the book. People always complicate things for themselves. Hopefully one day we will get it.